Various components such as IC chips and multifariously shaped connectors are automatically handled at high speed in a component mounting apparatus for mounting (or temporarily mounting) components onto a board. It has conventionally been practiced to allow a plurality of components to be collectively handled by storing the components arranged aligned in a tray in such a component mounting apparatus (refer to, for example, Document 1: JP 2000-299595 A).
In such a component mounting apparatus, trays storing a plurality of components and trays in an empty state after finishing component feeding are received in a stacked state, allowing the plurality of trays to be handled compactly efficiently. In concrete, a stacking tray supply unit having a supply side tray receiving unit which receives in a stacked state a plurality of trays and from which the received trays can be successively taken out for component feeding, a collection side tray receiving unit which successively collects empty trays that have been supplied from the supply side tray receiving unit and undergone component feeding and receives the trays in a stacked state, and a tray placing unit that receives and delivers a tray between the unit and the tray receiving units and moves the received tray placed thereon to a component feeding position is used.
Moreover, such a stacking tray supply unit is employed incorporated into a component mounting apparatus. A procedure for feeding components stored in a tray by the stacking tray supply unit is herein described.
In the stacking tray supply unit, one tray is first taken out of the supply side tray receiving unit and delivered to the tray placing unit, and the tray is positioned in the component feeding position by the tray placing unit. Subsequently, an inverting head is moved to a place above the tray positioned in the component feeding position, and one component in the tray is picked up by suction by the inverting head. The inverting head vertically inverts the component sucked and held and thereafter delivers the component to the component mounting head. Subsequently, the component is mounted onto a board by the component mounting head. By repeating the operation as described above, components are successively mounted onto the board.
When the components stored in the tray are depleted in due course, the empty tray is moved by the tray placing unit and delivered to the collection side tray receiving unit, so that the empty tray is collected. Subsequently, a new tray is retaken out of the supply side tray receiving unit from the supply side tray receiving unit and delivered to the tray placing unit. The new tray is positioned in the component feeding position by the tray placing unit, and the component feeding to the inverting head is restarted.
According to the component feeding method by the conventional stacking tray supply unit as described above, when the components are depleted in the tray positioned in the component feeding position and the tray enters the empty state, the component feeding by the inverting head unit is interrupted. By collecting the empty tray to the collection side tray receiving unit by the tray placing unit and thereafter supplying a new tray from the supply side tray receiving unit and positioning the tray in the component feeding position, the component feeding is restarted. This therefore leads to an issue that the component feeding is disadvantageously interrupted while the tray collecting and supplying operations are carried out.
In order to eliminate the interruption time of the component feeding as described above, an apparatus such that the component feeding interruption time is reduced by making the component mounting apparatus has, for example, two stacking tray supply units for supplying trays in which components of the same kind are stored, arranging two trays in two places of the component mounting position and carrying out component feeding alternately from the trays (i.e., carrying out feeding by the alternation method) is used (refer to, for example, Document 2: JP 2000-114783 A and Document 3: JP 2000-124671 A).
However, according to the system as described above, it is necessary to provide the two stacking tray supply units for supplying trays in which components of the same kind are stored, and this causes the problems of an increase in the apparatus cost, an increase in the apparatus space and so on, sometimes posing a factor to hinder the productivity of the component mounting.
An object of the present invention is to solve the above issues and provide a stacking tray supply unit and method, for stacking tray supplying by receiving in a stacked state a plurality of trays in a state in which the components to be mounted onto a board are aligned, capable of achieving high productivity while reducing losses in the machine tact of component feeding attributed to the fact that the components stored in the tray become depleted, as well as a component mounting apparatus and method.